Coos Bay to Crescent City

After a liesurely breakfast and dog walk we got ready to head out. That's when I remembered we had to reset the ignition on the car to 'accessory' and put the gear shift in neutral. I had turned the key off the night before so we wouldn't run down the battery. So I quickly went to make the change and that's when we found out that the battery was dead anyway. Bummer!! Well, as long as the shift could be put in neutral we were okay. So away we went.

We had a nice trip down the Oregon Coast and some of the best was from Coos Bay south. We made several stops to let cars pass and every time we had an incredible view. Around every curve was a new vista with stacks and spires galore, crashing surf and sweeping shores of smooth sand. Aaaand, the sun was out and we had blue sky all day. Simply marvelous!!

We pulled into Crescent City about 1:30 pm. The place we planned to stay at didn't exist so we pulled off by the port and had lunch. That's when we decided to see if we could jump start the car. So we unhooked the car and positioned the RV alongside it with the coach battery available for a jump start. Then I had to take the bike off the back of the car so we could get the jumper cables out. After hooking up the cables, Tina turned the key and started the car. I quickly disconnected the cables and the car died. Once more we connected the cables and started the car, but this time Tina kept the rpm's up while I got everything put away and the bike back on the car. Rather than hook up the car again we both drove to another RV Park and after got the rig set up.

As we were driving down the coast, Tina had seen the Lake Earl State Wildlife Area on the map so once we were ready we headed out in the car to find it. After a couple of false starts we got the the parking area at Dead Lake, part of the Lake Earl preserve northwest of town. Putting the dogs on their leashes and grabbing a couple of poop bags, the dogs took us for a long walk across the moors and out to the ocean.

With long stretches of sand and surf, we let the dogs run loose so they could play and dig up crabs. Walking up to a barking and frenzied Punky, Tina discovered a huge Dungeoness crab, probably six inches across the back. He wasn't moving much and probably had gotten stranded as the tide went out. Doing my good deed for the day, I picked him up and put him into a tide pool that was being filled by the incoming tide. Sure enough, after about ten minutes he revived and crawled up under a rock overhang.

After we got back to the car and dried off the dogs we drove to a viewing area overlooking Castle Rock Island Bird Sanctuary. We got there just befor sunset so we watched the sun go down behind the island taking lots of pictures. A perfect ending to a great day. This leg, 140 miles. Trip mileage 590 miles.